In 1781, Thomas Paine came up with a model for a single span bridge; in 1887, Adolf Eugen Fick made the first pair of contact lenses; and in 1907, Paul Cornu built the first helicopter. But someone thought of all these ideas first, over five hundred years ago: Leonardo da Vinci.

At once an artist, inventor, engineer, and scientist, da Vinci wrote and drew detailed descriptions of what would later become hang gliders, automobiles, robots, and much more. Gene Barretta cleverly shows how da Vinici's ideas foreshadowed modern inventions, offering a window into the future.